Isaiah's Visions
By Woodrow Kroll
Isaiah is God's messenger of hope. And in Chapter 6, we've come to the place where he gets his first revelation of the kind of God that gives hope to this world. There are a number of p laces in God's word where we can learn much about the majestic and wonder of God, but nowhere like this passage.Isaiah 6:1-8 In the very first verse, we get a time reference. It says, "In the year that king Uzziah died..." Isaiah had this vision some time within the year that king Uzziah died. It was 739 B.C.
Vision of God
Verse 1 continues, "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."God's sovereignty
That's a vision of God's sovereignty. Webster's Dictionary defines "sovereign" as above or superior to all others. Notice where God is. He is on His throne in heaven, high and lifted up, governing the entire universe. That the train of His robe filled the temple underscores His royal majesty.Yes, God is sovereign. He's sovereign in creation. Psalm 135:6: "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places." And Daniel 4:35: "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?"
God is sovereign also in govern
ment. Even those people you didn't vote for are governing now because of the divine appointment of God. Proverbs 21:1: "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will."Do you know that God is sovereign even when we are suffering? When we are going through the deepest, darkest distress of our life, God is still on the throne. We read in I Peter 3:17, "For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing." And Jesus prays in Luke 22:42, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." God was sovereign in the suffering of His Son.
Most of all, God is sovereign in salvation. Ephesians 1:11: "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
God's holiness
While God is sitting on the throne, verse 2 says: "Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."The two wings covering the face is probably meant to show their humility before God; the two wings covering the feet, their service to God; and the two wings flying, their ongoing activity in proclaiming God's holiness and glory. Hence, we read in verse 3: "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."
Holiness is something we don't hear a whole lot about today. We talk much in the church about fulfillment, about self-esteem and about relationships, but when it comes to God and us, holiness must be the very basis of all these things. God says, "Be holy for I am holy."
The three-fold repetition of a word doesn't happen often in scripture. Hence, when the seraphim says, "Holy, holy, holy," God is underscoring His absolute holiness. God is holy because His entire being is permeated with holiness. There isn't one little bit of Him that is tainted by evil or sin.
Thus, Moses cries unto God in Exodus 15:11, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" And when Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prayed to God, she says, "There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God" (I Samuel 2:2). Even in heaven, the four living creatures proclaim: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" (Rev. 4:8).
God's power
Now, verse 4, "And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke."The posts of the door are large foundation stones on which the door posts stood. I think the shaking of the posts, the shaking of the whole house of God in heaven, suggests the awesome presence of the power of God. Speaking also of God's voice, Hebrews 12:26 says, "Whose voice then
shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."And what was this smoke? While I don't mean this in any way to be irreverent, in fact just the opposite, may I suggest that the presence of God causes this smoke. This, my friends, is Holy Smoke. It's probably a reference to the cloud of glory which Isaiah's ancestors had seen in the wilderness (Exodus 13). And remember the priests in Solomon's day? They could not enter the temple after the dedication because it was also filled with the glory of God (I Kings 8).
Vision of Self
Once Isaiah saw the vision of the holy God, he began to have a vision of himself. We read in verse 5, "Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."First of all, he recognized that he is a sinner, he is a man of unclean lips. A person with unclean lips is a person with an unclean heart. Jesus says, "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matt. 15:18,19). And so, Isaiah says, "Woe is me! for I am undone." He realizes that he, like every one of us sinners, deserves to be condemned.
It's not enough that Isaiah himself was unclean, he said he lived among people who were unclean, equally doomed as he was. He was saying that in the worst of his society, what was worst had become the norm. Whenever the worst becomes the norm, my friends, something still worse will always come along.
Like Isaiah, I am a sinner. I admit that freely, because I am a human being. And I, too, live among people that are sinners. Notwithstanding all the wonders of modern science, our society is not getting better; it is getting worse. All you have to do is to turn on the TV at night or to pick up a newspaper and you know that's true.
The Bible says it is going to get worse. Take some time out and read II Timothy 3:1-5 and you'll see that ours is a society that is on the fast track to destruction.
What a contrast Isaiah saw as he viewed himself and his people after having viewed God. Instinctively, he decided that he was doomed, saying at the end of verse 5, "for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
When Moses wanted to see the face of God, God Himself told him "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live" (Exo. 33:20). Because of that, every time in the Old Testament when men saw what they thought was the face of God or even when they saw the angels of God, they expected to die. That became the universal expectation in the Old Testament.
Remember the time Jacob wrestled with the angel of God? He called the name of the place Peniel, explaining "for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30). When the angel of the Lord appeared before Manoah , the father of Samson, and to his wife, Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God" (Judges 13:22).
Visions of Cleansing and Calling
Isaiah saw God and thought that
he was doomed. But there is good news. Look at verses 6 and 7: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."That is exactly what every person who knows he is doomed by his own sin needs. We need somebody to purge us, somebody to cleanse us. In the case of Isaiah, he saw one of the seraphims take a live coal off the altar of God, put it on his unclean lips and he was cleansed. That's not how it happens with you and me, though. Today, it is the Holy Spirit using the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all sin.
Now, if you want to be of use to God today, you need a vision of God. You need to know who God is. You also need a realistic view of yourself and a vision of your having been cleansed by the blood of Christ. Then, you are ready to be used of the Lord God in a remarkable way.
But how would that be? Look at verse 8, "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." You see, this is Isaiah's vision of his calling. And by answering the call, he became one the greatest prophets ever used by God.
Closing Fable
Once upon a time, there were four men named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was asked to do it. But Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.Somebody got angry about it because it was Everybody's job. But Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, and Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody, and Nobody did the job that Anybody could have done in the first place.
Thankfully, the Nobody's of the world are still alive todaysimple people who love the Lord.
When the pastor calls for Sunday School teachers, Nobody is the most likely one to respond. When cleanup day rolls around the church, Nobody is the one who reports for duty. When there is a need to provide housing for a visiting speaker or a missionary, Nobody is first in line. And when there is a call for someone to bring the gospel to some foreign lands, Nobody steps forward.
How refreshing it must be for our God to hear somebody say, "Here am I; send me." o
Dr. Woodrow Kroll is General Director of Back to the Bible, P. O. Box 82808 Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501.